Mater Research TRIP Symposium 2017

Keynote Speakers

Gita Misrha

Prof. Gita Mishra is an NHMRC principal research fellow and Professor of Life Course Epidemiology at the School of Public Heath, University of Queensland. She is also Director of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’ Health, a major national study running since 1996 that has informed development of policy related to women’s health. She leads the InterLACE project, a major international consortium on reproductive health and chronic disease that draws on data from more than 500,000 women from 23 cohort studies. She is internationally recognised for her contribution to research on life course epidemiology and women’s health.

Lisa Mackenzie

Dr Lisa Mackenzie is a National Breast Cancer Foundation Post-doctoral Research Fellow with the Health Behaviour Research Collaborative, based at the University of Newcastle and Hunter Medical Research Institute. Lisa is a member of the multi-institutional Hunter Cancer Research Alliance (HCRA) translational cancer research centre (TCRC), and the Cancer Institute NSW-funded Cancer Implementation Science Community of Practice.

Lisa was awarded her PhD (Behavioural Science) from the University of Newcastle in May 2014. Lisa’s PhD research focused on radiation oncology outpatients’ perceptions of patient-centred cancer care and preferences for psychosocial support and life expectancy disclosure. Lisa has also conducted similar research in a Japan, as one of 20 recipients nationwide of a prestigious 2011 Prime Minister's Australia Asia Endeavour Award.

Lisa’s research program focuses on addressing the practical and psychosocial needs of cancer patients, with an increasing focus on patients living in geographically isolated areas. Lisa’s interest in cancer implementation science is reflected by her involvement in related projects including implementation of telehealth support for rural breast cancer patients, and a Hunter Cancer Research Alliance proof-of-concept study exploring the implementation of psychosocial care guidelines in a cancer treatment centre.

David Whiteman

Professor David Whiteman is the Deputy Director & Senior Scientist Head of the Cancer Control Laboratory at the Melanoma and Skin Cancer Research Centre (QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute,Brisbane, Queensland, Australia).

He is a medical epidemiologist with a special interest in the causes, control and prevention of cancer. He received his medical degree from the University of Queensland in 1991, and his PhD in cancer epidemiology in 1997. He was awarded a Nuffield Medical Research Fellowship to undertake post-doctoral training at the University of Oxford in cancer epidemiology. He returned to Brisbane in 2000, and now leads a large program of cancer research comprising national and international studies of melanoma and other cancers.

Professor Whiteman has an international reputation for research into cancers of the skin and gastrointestinal tract, and for his more recent work on cancer control. To that end, he has pursued two parallel but complementary paths, focusing on discovering how environmental and genetic factors interact to cause cancer on the one hand, and then applying this knowledge to the prevention and control of disease on the other.

In addition to his research activities, he is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, a Fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine, a member of the Academy of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) and currently Chairs the Barrett’s Neoplasia Guidelines Committee for the Cancer Council Australia and the Breast Cancer Risk Factors Working Group for Cancer Australia. In 2006, he was awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholarship to work at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.